Ministers Meet in Kars to Discuss Railway Project

Transport Ministers from Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia are meeting in Kars to discuss the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project.

Ministers will be brought up to date with the project, which will see a new 105 km branch railway and the reconstruction of a section of the Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Marabda railway in Georgia. Additionally, a centre to be built in Akhalkalaki which will facilitate the transition of trains in Georgia to the European network.

Spokesman for Azerbaijan Railways (ADY), Nadir Azmammadov says the Ministers will be presented with information about the progress of the project, and how remaining challenges will be resolved.

Once the Marmaray project, which is constructing a rail tube tunnel under the Bosphorus, is completed in October 2013, freight and passengers will have the possibility of connecting via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway to Europe.

The completed railway will have a capacity of around 30 million tons of cargo per annum, and is scheduled to be in operation in 2014.